Taking the High Road: The Form, Perception and Memory of Loch Lomond

As the largest stretch of inland water within Britain, Loch Lomond has always held a special significance both locally and, increasingly, within the national consciousness. As a pass to the Highlands from Glasgow, it represented both access and vulnerability, while being hemmed in both east and west by mountains made it as dangerous as it was romantic. For the fleeing Scots, lured by the opportunities to disappear into the islands of the loch, it represented, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s rather fanciful account, a sure haven, but, as the narrative continues, “it provided of little advantage to them. For Arthur, having got together a fleet sailed round the rivers, and besieged the enemy fifteen days together, by which they were so straitened with hunger, that they died by thousands.”